688: Why, Combinator?
Grumpy Old Geeks14 Mar 2025

688: Why, Combinator?

Pi Day gets its due; Y Combinator marks 20 years of “disruption”; Americans lose $12.5B to scams thanks to AI and social media; Deliveroo posts a profit but still tanks on Wall Street; Twitter’s security remains a joke; Pinterest steals user content for AI; and a rogue developer gets busted for a kill switch scheme. Severance Season 2 costs $20M per episode; Ted Lasso returns despite ending; Waymo’s driverless taxis rack up parking tickets; and Apple plans to turn AirPods into live translators. Meanwhile, the FCC launches a National Security Council, the U.S. housing agency flirts with crypto, and hermit crabs show better teamwork than Big Tech.

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Show notes at https://gog.show/688


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It's Pi Day.

The Man Behind The American Oligarchy


IN THE NEWS

Deliveroo turns first annual profit

FTC says Americans lost $12.5B to scams last year

Consumer Reports finds popular voice cloning tools lack safeguards

The FCC is creating a new Council for National Security within the agency

DOGE axes CISA ‘red team’ staffers amid ongoing federal cuts

Judge Calls DOGE Firings a ‘Sham,

20 Plagues Y Combinator Unleashed on the World Over the Last 20 Years

‘We Are Witnessing a New Brain Drain’ as Scientists Flee America for France

Elon Musk claims bad actors in Ukraine are behind “massive“ X cyberattack

The Real Reason Twitter Went Down

Developer convicted for “kill switch” code

Pinterest to Train AI Models on User Content

U.S. Housing Agency Considers Launching Crypto Experiment

Waymo was slapped with nearly 600 parking tickets

Are We Inside a Black Hole?


MEDIA CANDY

Severance is laughing at you

Somehow, Severance season 2 cost an enormous $20 million per episode

Eddy Cue and Ben Stiller interview each other about Severance

Paradise

The White Lotus

Black Mirror: Season 7 | Official Trailer

Ted Lasso Returning for Season 4

Apple Music Classical expands to the web

Aphex Twin Curates a Massive 191-Song Playlist

Playlist - Music selected by Aphex Twin for Supreme.

Matt Pinfield Comes Out of a Coma After Suffering Massive Stroke


APPS & DOODADS

AudioShake Launches Breakthrough AI Model to Separate Overlapping Voices

Zoom PodTrak P2

Apple reportedly plans to add a live-translation feature to AirPods

'Don't let your kids be on Roblox', Roblox CEO tells parents


AT THE LIBRARY

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams

Meta is trying to silence a former executive


THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Only Malware in the Building

Gravity Falls

Baiting A Romance Fraudster

Hermit Crabs: Conga Line Cooperation

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episoder(736)

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254: Pedantic Fail

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253: Too Little, Too Late

253: Too Little, Too Late

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2 Apr 20181h 44min

252: Cluster Zuck

252: Cluster Zuck

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251: SpaceForce2000

251: SpaceForce2000

Rogue satellites; uplifting Musk; migrating Birds; AirBnB reality; YouTube & Wikipedia; Equifax CIO caught; Theranos fraud; Trim app; hodl the door; privacy review; citizen scores; Yahoo class-action;...

19 Mar 20181h 17min

250: Useful But Creepy

250: Useful But Creepy

250 episodes of mild grump; not making $ w/ YouTube & Uber; fighting Birds; unintended consequences; baffling Snap; Bat Day; Netflix, rising; Dirty Coin; bad UI; Jessica Jones; the Cure; Moviepass tra...

12 Mar 20181h 46min

249: Distributed Excel Spreadsheet

249: Distributed Excel Spreadsheet

Blockchain, explained; more completely wrong headlines; rat race to the bottom; Spotify; social media rules; removing yourself from searches; adventures in PC land; ello, Vero; expensive cameras & bad...

5 Mar 20182h 18min

248: Side Hustle

248: Side Hustle

Uber & the gig economy; Airbnb cheats & Spotify swindles; FCC order; death of the web; Snapchat user revolt; the great Twitter purge; Facebook peaks; grim AI future; Youtube trending; Maps, quantified...

26 Feb 20181h 50min

247: Thoughts and Prayers

247: Thoughts and Prayers

Here we are, again; Doggie DNA; Apple glass accidents; cryptomining instead of ads; Magic Leap’s some amount of money; Amazon layoffs; Berlin bans Airbnb; facial analysis bias, informed consent & data...

19 Feb 20181h 21min

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